A monster.

He was chasing a goddamn, straight out of fairy tales monster.

Though which fairy tale he would have been hard-pressed to say. And perhaps chasing was a bit of a stretch, as it was rather difficult to chase something you'd lost sight of five minutes ago.

Maximus had managed to follow the… thing, whatever it was, throughout a number of empty hallways, to the opposite end of the building and straight out a window onto a fire escape. One long, long fire escape. Thankfully, heights had never been a particular fear of his. He'd dashed down the steps after the creature, doing his best to keep an eye on it as he descended. Maximus was fast, but that thing was a whole heck of a lot faster. By the time his feet hit solid ground, his target had long since disappeared down a nearby alley.

Never the quitter, he'd charged off in the same direction it had gone, but since then had seen neither hide nor hair of it. No one had, it seemed. You'd think a pale, floating, splindly, zipper-mouthed creature would have drawn looks and raised more than a few eyebrows, but anyone on the street he questioned had nothing to give him except blank stares at the description. With the trail seemingly have gone cold, Maximus was now backtracking and slowly retracing his steps, looking for any clues he might have missed as to where the thing had gone. He wasn't about to hold his breath, but he had to be sure.

He grumbled darkly to himself, scowling as his eyes scanned the filthy back lane. This was all tied to Flynn Rider. He didn't know how. He didn't know why. He just knew. Could feel it in his gut. His one and only lead on Rider had brought him straight to the condo where the wretched little beast had come barreling out of. That was too much of a coincidence.

And that broad he had been questioning? As shady as they came. She'd definitely been holding back information. Perhaps it was time to throw in the towel on this wild goose chase and head back to see what else he could get out of her. He released a heavy sigh through his nose. He hated giving up, but he hated wasting his precious time even more.

Just as he was about to turn and head back to the condo, a golden flash suddenly lit up from the ground at his feet. He stumbled back a step before looking down, wincing against the brightness. He quirked an eyebrow, "What the…?"

A thin stream of light on the ground seemed to be all but flowing down the alley and out onto the bustling street at the far end. Maximus kneeled down beside it for a closer look. The whole thing appeared to consist of hundreds - no, thousands of long, infinitesimal cords. If he didn't know any better, he'd almost mistake it for hair. But hair didn't have the innate ability to light up like a raver glow stick. At least not last time he'd checked, anyway.

Welp. Guess it was time to follow the yellow brick road. Or rather, yellow… strand road. Whatever.

What was one more wasted minute?

Once it hit the main street, the glimmering trail took a sharp right. Peeking around the corner, Maximus saw it crept a few buildings down the sidewalk before turning into an open door. He squinted up at the neon sign, his lip curling. "The Snuggly Duckling?"

Just as abruptly as it began, the golden light dimmed and faded. He frowned down at the strands, now sprawled mute across the pavement, debating how much he really wanted to pursue this. Was it strange? Yes. Suspicious activity? Sure. But related to his case? Highly unlikely. He probably should shrug it off and turn ba-

A hint of white suddenly danced at the edge of his peripheral. His gaze zeroed in on it in an instant and he blinked.

No…. it couldn't be...

It was! It was that little freak of a monster he'd been looking for! Frozen where he stood, Maximus watched as it skittered along the side of the building and stopped just above the the lettering spelling out The Snuggly Duckling. Though it had no visible eyes, the thing's head unmistakably shifted to observe the same mysterious yellow trail Maximus had been following. Then its neck craned around to the door the trail disappeared into. With a small hop and twist of its slender body, it flitted in through the entrance.

He tore down the sidewalk, skidding and scrambling into a turn through the door after it.

Ho-ho, no! There was no way he was letting it get away this…

...time?

He stumbled to a halt inside, eyes darting about. He seemed to have found his way into some sort of night club, if the smoky ambience, rainbow laser lights, and thick scent of body sweat clinging to the air were any indications. But if this was really a club, where was the music? Where was the dancing? The place was packed, but everyone was just… standing there. Staring. At what? He couldn't tell, but they all had their backs to him, so it seemed to be further in towards the center of the joint. All the people were blocking his view.

Remembering why he'd come in here in the first place, Maximus cursed under his breath. His gaze scanned the place from grimy floor to shrouded ceiling. The monster was nowhere to be seen. Well the little bastard couldn't have gotten far. He started to push and shoulder his way into the crowd, eyes scouring every inch of the place as he went.

A woman's voice could be heard, faint but getting louder as he moved further in. He couldn't make out the words just yet, but he was hardly interested. Probably just a server asking the owner of some SUV or other to move their double-parked vehicle before it was towed. The clubgoers were pressed shoulder to shoulder at this point, making it more of a struggle to forge a path. Wedging himself between a couple of twenty-somethings to force his way past them, he staggered out the other side-

-and straight smack dab into another guy carrying a backpack. Said guy dropped said backpack and almost toppled over himself, but Maximus was quick to catch his arm and steady him.

"Sorry, didn't see you there." Maximus stooped down, retrieving the bag and offering it to him.

"Heh, no uh… no worries, man. Thanks," he said, hardly sparing a glance towards Maximus, seemingly more focused on doing his damnedest to see over the heads of everyone standing in front of them. He distractedly fumbled to take the backpack back, slinging the strap over one shoulder.

Had he sensed a hint of anxiety to the man's tone? One had to wonder what he had to be nervous about. Did it have to do with whatever had everyone else in this place so enthralled?

"Don't mention it," Maximus muttered in reply. The guy didn't even seem to hear him. He was muttering something to himself. Perking up an ear, Maximus was only able to catch a word here and there.

"...glows… her hair, it frigging-"

Maximus felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He frowned at the strange man but brushed it off as he pulled the phone out. He'd asked the sketch artist to text him a picture of the portrait when they were done working with the twins. Sure enough, when his thumb swiped the screen, there was the face of the suspect, rendered in all its graphite glory. Jeeze, what an ugly mug. Poor guy was more nose than face.

Maximus frowned at the picture. "Wait a minute…" His gaze flicked up to the man he had bumped into not five seconds ago, eyes narrowing as he raised his phone alongside him. Same floppy hair… same stupid goatee… same dumb look…

As if feeling the holes being burnt into the side of his skull, the guy glanced over towards Maximus again, one eyebrow raised. "Need something?"

...something was off. Maximus raised one thumb to block his line of sight to the nose belonging to the man standing in front of him while shifting his other thumb to cover the shnoz on the sketch on his phone.

Bingo.

"Flynn Rider," he growled.

The man's eyes widened, his whole body visibly going rigid. There was a pause the space of a heartbeat where neither of them moved a muscle. Then-

WHACK!

The backpack was a green blur of movement slamming into the side of Maximus's head before he even realized what was happening. Maximus staggered, but managed to stay upright. That Rider bastard was already on the move, trying to cram his way through the crowd and make his escape.

Giving himself a shake, Maximus's gun was out of its holster in the blink of an eye. "Hold it right there, scumbucket!" he roared, training the pistol at the back of Rider's head.

Unfortunately, whether Rider would have stopped or not would forever remain a question mark.

For that was the precise second that all hell broke loose.

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Not one measly hour since escaping that jailhouse of a condo and Rapunzel had already managed to screw this up!

She'd just gotten all caught up in the moment! All the people, the dancing, the laughing… and then that song! That stupid, stupid song! The second it had started blaring out the speakers overhead, it was like her lips had a mind of their own and before she knew it, she'd started singing along. She hadn't been able to help it! Come on, cut her some slack, it had only been, like, the greatest song of all time!

… well okay, it was at least in the top five.

...fine, it was probably only- whatever, it was just a really good song, okay?

But that was beside the point! How much of a fan she was of the song she'd been singing didn't really matter now. What mattered was that she'd been singing period. The next thing she knew, her hair had been flaring up like a beacon and everything had stopped. The laughing, the dancing, the people, all of it had come to a full on screeching halt. Now all there was was awkward silence and wide-eyed stares.

Ugh, and she could already hear the smug, singsong "I told you so" from Mother. When she found out about this, Rapunzel would never hear the end of it.

Or rather… if she found out, that is.

After all, there was no reason word of this ever had to go beyond the four walls of this here little club, right? What was one teensy secret between her and a hundred-some-odd strangers?

Alright, time for some damage control. As the light in her hair went out and her locks returned to normal, she put on a smile and waggled her fingers in a tiny wave to her audience. "Hello," she said. Except it came out more of a squeak. Clearing her throat and squaring her shoulders, she tried again. "Sup with this hair of mine, crazy, amiright?" She gave a feeble chuckle.

Crickets.

Rubbing the back of her neck, she went on, "Soooooo I was kinda hoping you guys could do me a huge favor and, er… pretend this never happened? Don't talk about it," she gestured to the nearest person pointing their phone at her, "don't take pictures or video, don't tweet about it, just… what happens in the Snuggly Duckling, stays in the Snuggly Duckling, ya know? Simple as-"

A loud bang interrupted her, making her jump. Her eyes immediately looked to the source - some blonde girl with rather odd hair (and that was saying something coming from Rapunzel) had seemingly just pounded her fist into the surface of a nearby table. She looked way pissed at the three people she was sitting with. By the looks on their faces, they didn't seem particularly thrilled with that woman either as they all leapt to their feet. And woah, was the angry chick's hand sparking?

As if sensing Rapunzel's stare, the blonde's gaze shifted and locked with hers. A wicked smirk twisted her lips and she purred, "Hold tight, hon, I'll get to you in just a second."

Rapunzel stiffened, gulped and stiffly forced a weak half smile. "...k-kay?"

She didn't know what this girl meant by that, but she got the sneaking suspicion she didn't want to be here when it was time to find out.

"Larxene!" One of the other three - a girl with a braid - snapped. "What are you doing here?!"

The blonde - Larxene apparently - giggled as she too rose from her seat. "What," she began, tapping the other girl's nose, "in-" a tap to the tall redhead's as well, "-deed," a final flick to the snoot of the spiky brown haired boy. A tiny zap accompanied each touch. "It must be fate," she continued, stepping onto her chair and boosting herself up onto the table. "Truly kismet, the way we keep bumping into each other like this. Like it or not, it would seem that our destinies are intertwined. Face it, chickadees, there's no escaping me. Karma's a bitch, and so am I."

The brown haired boy snarled, "Quit yapping and get on with it! What do you-"

Larxene pressed the sole of her boot to his face, her heel covering his mouth. "Pipe down, pipsqueak. If you'd let me finish, I was getting there."

Alright, this chick? Straight up whack.

But there was at least one silver lining to all of this. All eyes in the club were now fixed on this Larxene person and not on Rapunzel. Perhaps she could use this distraction to grab her new friend and split. Sidling over to the edge of the crowd, she whispered, "Flynn… Flynn?"

"By the way, Firecracker," Larxene chirped while the guy whose face she was currently using as a footrest shoved her shoe off with a grimace. Luckily, she seemed to have forgotten all about Rapunzel, at least for the moment. "I made a quick pop over to headquarters. Your little stunt with my phone only bought you time - hardly any really, but you had to have realized that already since, ya know, we can teleport. Any guesses as to what the Superiors had to say about you?"

The redhead shrugged with a wry grinned. "That I'm a team player with an award winning personality and just an all around awesome guy?"

Her eyelids drooped. "No." Planting a hand on one hip, she went on, "As you may have guessed, none of your story held up when I spoke to the Superiors. Your mission, that girl, all of it. Lies. Not that I believed any of it in the first place, especially not after your little performance earlier today. Still, I wasn't about to risk my neck on the inane chance that you might be telling the truth."

"Ouch. So little faith in me." He placed a hand to his chest, "You wound me, madam. Wound me."

She pointed at him. "You've been branded a traitor. Orders are to kill you on sight." She hummed out a soft laugh, tossing one hand up in the air. "Oh, how the mighty have fallen."

What was all this? Superiors? Traitor? Kill?!

Rapunzel inhaled sharply. This was what Mother had warned her about! This was a ruffian! Or… or a thug! Eyes now frantically searching the throng, she hissed a little more loudly, "Flynn, where are you?"

One corner of her lips twitching upward, Larxene lifted her chin ever so slightly. "I originally just came here to pick up Lite-Brite and take her back to HQ."

Lite-Brite? Who was Lite-Brite?

Larxene snapped her fingers and suddenly pools of white light erupted around Rapunzel, forcing her to stagger back a step. From them appeared several creatures who bore striking resemblance to the pyjama monster, surrounding her and eliciting gasps from the clubgoers.

...oh.

She was Lite-Brite. Got it.

"Leave her alone!" the girl with the braid yelled, moving to stand between Larxene and Rapunzel.

Larxene ignored her. "But since you've all been so kind as to simply fall into my lap, I'm in the mood to do a lil extracurricular. Since you seem to have so much trouble following orders, Firecracker, take note. This is how it's done. Step one," she ticked off her index finger, "secure the target. That's you, sweetpea," she winked at Rapunzel before ticking off the next finger. "Step two - bag Frosty here," she nodded towards the other girl, "and clean up your mess. Step three," she made a finger gun with so-called 'Firecracker' in her imaginary crosshairs, "eliminate the turncoat."

As she mimed pulling the trigger, another pack of pyjama monsters materialized, this time gathering round the three at the table.

"Think again, lady!" The brown haired boy glared and threw out a hand to one side. A flash of brilliance burst from his palm and he was suddenly holding something that hadn't been there a second ago. He pointed the thing at Larxene. "Back off and get lost!"

Rapunzel furrowed her brow and cocked her head.

Was that… a jumbo key he was threatening Larxene with?

Man, being out in the real world was wild!

Larxene blinked a couple of times at the boy, expression blank as her eyes darted from his face to the strange weapon and back again. "Wait… you're…? Oh… oh no…" She fought a tiny grin as another giggle bubbled out of her that exploded into full on laughter. "Oh no! You?! You're the Keyblade Master? What are you, like, twelve?"

He deflated somewhat at that, his shoulders slumping. "I'm sixteen," he grumbled petulantly.

"Well aren't you just the cutest?" Larxene squatted down atop the table in front of him and pinched his cheek. "So small, so precious, I just want to put you in my pocket!"

"H-hey, stop that!" he slapped her hand away, face scrunching in annoyance.

She straightened up once more and crossed her arms, tapping a finger to her lower lip. "I've been wondering what the deal with the kid was. Thought you'd just decided to take up babysitting, Firecracker. But now it all makes sense! Now I see why they've been gathering."

"What are you even talking about?" key-boy spat out. "Why who's been gathering?"

She frowned and squinted at him. "Wait…" she slowly shook her head, "you don't even feel it, do you?"

His head rocked back slightly and he exchanged a wary glance with the other two he was with. "...what?"

A sudden chill ran down Rapunzel's spine and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

Larxene snickered and clapped her hands together a couple times. "Doi! Of course you don't feel it, you're practically a toddler!"

"Feel what?!" He ground out.

"Why, the Darkness, of course," she spread her arms out wide with a wolfish smirk. "The city positively reeks of it, shrimp. Pockets of it are popping up everywhere even as we speak, like festering boils ready to burst. And wouldn't ya know it?" She jut a hip out to one side as she pointed a digit skyward. "We're under one. Right. Now."

And that's when they came. Shadows with creepy yellow eyes, hundreds of them, all raining down from the ceiling.

AN: Aaaaaaah it's a Christmas Day miracle! Surprise guys and happy holidays! Sorry for the incoming wall of text but you know me, I love to ramble!

First and foremost, MUCH praise and MUCH worship to my patient readers, in particular these amazing individuals who left me such lovely reviews last chapter: Swagneto1423, SoraKairiRikuNamine, Amarxlen, Spiderfan626, Miss PandaManga, and The Keeper of Worlds. You're all beautiful people and I love each and every one of you!

Wooooooooow I can't believe it's been months since I've updated any of my stories, not to mention over a year since I've updated THIS story! If you need a little refresher on what's going on, reading the previous 2 chapters should be good enough xD Sorry it took so long guys! Trust me, I didn't forget about it, it was constantly on my mind! I've just unfortunately been wrastling with the constant struggle all us writers deal with to find the time and energy to write! Then whenever I DID find time and energy, I was distracted by multiple story ideas - not even just the 2 others on here you know about, but at least 3 others I haven't even started posting yet xD I'm sorry, I'm weak and easily distracted and want to work on all the things xD And whenever I DID buckle down to work on this story, I was stumped. Turned out what I needed was to write myself an outline! Split Ends has now been fully planned out to the last chapter (ooooo I know exactly how long it's gonna be now) and I have a clear solid path now! And you know what? Once I did that, this chapter only took about a week to write from start to finish! Yup, after over a year of sitting on it, that's it! Ahhhh, the power of outlines!

Even better news? I'm already half way into writing the next chapter of Split Ends too! It seems once I get the ball rolling, these chapters go pretty quick and easy xD I've got the momentum, baby, so I'mma ride this train for a while! I'd like to get out 4 or 5 new chapters to you guys before I switch back to one of my other stories! So hopefully, time allowing, you should be seeing more updates to this story soon!

Side note... I know I'm several months late on this (give me a break, I've not been updating xD) but OMG FROZEN WAS CONFIRMED TO BE IN KH3! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY THAT MADE ME I LEGIT CRIED I'M NOT EVEN JOKING IT'S RIDICULOUS HOW MUCH I CARE xDDD I'm just thrilled Elsa is officially canonically in Kingdom Hearts universe now! And sooooooooon when I mark my fanfics in the Kingdom Hearts category, I'll be able to select Elsa as a character from the lil drop down menus xD *happy dance* it's the lil things that make life truly special lawl! Now all I need from KH3 is for a certain fire boi to frolic around in a certain winter wonderland and meet a certain ice queen and I can die happy x'D It's probably not gonna happen, but there's no reason it CAN'T happen either and hey, a girl can dream right? JUST OVER A MONTH TO GO UNTIL WE ALL GET TO PLAY KH3 YAY! I don't know if you've all been paying attention to the trailers, I won't say anything specific if you haven't to avoid spoilers, but that recent one (if you've seen it you know which I'm I'm talking about) has me SCARED for REASONS and (again if you've seen it) I'm sure you know those reasons Dx

OKAY! I think I'm done with the rambling now xD If you're still here after all of that, thanks for bearing with me lol I've just been gone a while and I had a lot to say, dammit! It just kind of builds up, you know? Thank you so so sooooo much for reading, I super duper appreciate it! If you have any comments or friendly feedback, please make my day and leave a review! Catch you at the next update, lovelies, which will be sooner than you think, I swear! Much love, peace out, word to your mothers, and other such phrases that shouldn't be coming out of the likes of lil ol' me!